USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Whately > History of the town of Whately, Mass., including a narrative of leading events from the first planting of Hatfield, 1661-1899 : with family genealogies > Part 16
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The Sunday following it was rung at the same place for meeting and at noon when it was rung, I was there to see it as well as to hear its tones. It seemed as though the whole town thronged the grounds of Capt. Graves. In those days, all went to meeting and stayed to both services. The next week it was hoisted into the belfry, and every evening at 9 o'clock it rung out cheerfully, until about 1860 when clocks were so abundant that the town declined to continue the practice. I well recall the facts related about its journey, its being hoisted by willing hands to its place. It was slid up on long smooth poles to the belfry window.
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In December, 1821, the town voted to give Mr. Lemuel P. Bates a call to settle as a colleague pastor with Mr. Wells at a salary of $350 per year, to be increased to $450 after the decease of Mr. Wells, and what was called a "settlement" of $500 to be paid in three installments. He was ordained 13 Feb., 1822, and was dismissed 17 Oct., 1832. He is remembered for his unsav- ory reputation. The town ceased its control about 1828 or '29 and the parish was organized. There has since been settled quite a number of different clergymen, among them Rev. John Ferguson, Rev. J. H. Temple, Rev. Charles N. Seymour, Rev. John W. Lane, Rev. M. F. Hardy and now (189)) Rev. George L. Dickinson. In the interim between settled ministers I recall Rev. Mr. Snow, Rev. Mr. Chase, Rev. Mr. Lincoln, Rev. Mr. Salter, Rev. Mr. Curtis, and there were others that I do not now recall. At the second church Rev. J. S. Judd was settled in October, 1843, and dismissed in 1855. He was succeeded by Rev. Charles Lord, who was settled in 1856 and dismissed in 1860.
The second church was formed by the secession of seven- teen members from the first one who withdrew on account of the lack of sound orthodox preaching. They claimed that the preaching was verging towards Methodism. These seventeen were soon followed by others to the number of seventy-five in all, and were properly organized into a church. I well recollect hearing one Sunday a discourse, largely upon free agency, and seeing the scowls that covered the faces of some of the good people. One lady who sat in a chair became so much incensed that she arose and, grasping her chair with both hands and turning her back to the minister, set down her chair with a bang that attracted every eye. So it was the straight laced Calvinist that seceded and then, as more liberal thought pervaded the community after the decease of the original members, the two churches were again happily reunited in 1867. They enlarged the new meeting house, raising and fitting it up in good shape so that it is a matter of pride to the whole town.
The Baptist church probably grew out of the fierce quarrel over the location of the meeting-house. There were, perhaps, a few full-fledged Baptists living in town that believed in the necessity of immersion, and others in the adjoining towns who joined with them. They built a meeting-house, on Poplar Hill road, two stories high, with a gallery on three sides. In 1817, the parish voted, "To cut it down four (4) feet and remove the
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galleries." This was done by sawing off the posts and studding, thus lowering the church, and then finished off into what was called slips. This was rededicated in October, 1817, the sermon being given by Rev. David Pease of Ashfield. The first minis- ter was Rev. Asa Todd from Westfield. He was doubtless an excellent inan, but very deficient in educational qualifications, judging by the church records that he kept. He was followed by Rev. Stephen Barker from Heath, Rev. John R. Goodnough, Rev. Lorenzo Rice, who remained several years, then Rev. James Parker and then Rev. George Bills, an Englishman. Since Mr. Bills they have had occasional preaching, but gave up their organization 23 Aug., 1850.
After 1818 a small Methodist society was organized and a certificate reciting the facts was filed with the town clerk. It is quite likely this was to avoid taxation by the regular orthodox church, as then every taxpayer was taxed by the town for the support of the regular order, and many avoided this by filing their certificates with the town clerk that they were members of some other religious society.
The Universalist society was organized 20 May, 1839. The warrant was issued for the first regular meeting by Luke B. White, Esq., on a petition of fourteen of its members dated 18 April, 1839. A constitution and by-laws were adopted with the understanding that as many Sabbath meetings should be held as the funds raised would allow. It began with one Sunday per month for the first year and ended in 1860 with preaching half of the time. On the formation of the Unitarian society, in 1865, the members of the Universalist all joined heartily with those who favored the forming of the Unitarian society, and a meeting-house was built and dedicated 17 Jan., 1867. The pas- tors were Rev. E. B. Fairchild, three years, Rev. George H. El- dridge, two years, and Rev. Leonard W. Brigham, about three and one-half years, with several young men in the interim of settled pastors. A large number of the wealthiest members removed to other towns, and the society ceased to exist about the year 1876.
JOHN H. PEASE'S RESIDENCE.
CHAPTER X.
WHATELY ROADS.
The system of highways originally adopted by Hatfield, and partially carried out before the incorporation of this town, has been already mentioned. The idea was to give every land- owner ready access to his several lots. The system was roads running north and south through the town, crossed at right angles by east and west roads, extending from the meadows to the town limits. This could be easily effected because the sys- tem was devised before the Commons were divided.
The Straits road was the Indian trail and practically di- vided the River Meadows from the Upland Commons. The Chestnut Plain road was a space of ten rods wide left between the two main divisions of Commons. The east and west roads were reserved lots in the Commons. The only cross roads within Whately limits, laid out by Hatfield, were the Christian Lane, between lots No. 36 and 37 in the second division, and Mt. Esther road, between lots No. 26 and 27 in the fourth division. These two roads, as laid out in 1716, were coinci- dent at the Chestnut Plain crossing, and taken together ex- tended from the west line of the Bradstreet farm, to "the end of the six miles from the great river." The course was not quite a straight line, as the Mt. Esther road from Chestnut Plain bore due east and west. All the roads laid by Hatfield were ten rods wide.
It seems to have been the original intention to lay the north and south through roads at about half a mile distant from each other, and it was pretty well understood where the line of a road would be. This is shown by the location of the earliest houses.
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Capt. Lucius Allis, Lieut. Elisha Frary, Edward Brown, Simeon Morton and other settlers knew where to build, and a road was sure, in due time, to come to them.
The road north and south over Spruce Hill and Chestnut mountain to Hatfield line was laid out by Whately in 1772, and the same year the town voted, "That Samuel Dickinson have liberty to make bars or gates near the southerly end of this road for his convenience." These gates were ordered to be removed and the road made an open highway in 1783.
The road from Conway line over Poplar hill by the Baptist meeting-house, and so on over Hog mountain to the south line of the town, was laid out 1773 and was early accepted as a county road. A road from Conway line to the south line of Whately, west of the Poplar hill road was laid out in 1774. Probably the following has reference to this road: 1785, "Voted, To open and clear the road running southerly from Simeon Morton's by Paul Smith's to Williamsburg line."
A road was laid in 1778 from Conway line southerly to the highway south of Elisha Frary's, and from the above highway between said Frary's house and barn, southeasterly. Probably this was a designated line of a through road but its history is - obscure. It seems to have been continued to West brook, and along the north bank of said brook to meet the Stony hill road, and the road running southwesterly, by the southwest school- house, was probably a branch or continuation of it in that direction.
The line of the Claverack road, probably so named by the soldiers who returned from an expedition to Claverack, N. Y., in 1779, perhaps from a real or fancied resemblance to that place, . seems to have been established by tradition and worked as houses were built. The following votes probably refer to this line: 1777, a committee was chosen to view a road from the Egypt road north to the Deerfield line and survey the same. 1780, a road three rods wide was laid from Eleazer Frary's to Hatfield line, "Beginning half a mile east of Chestnut Plain street, to lands reserved by the proprietors of Hatfield for a road at the east end of Mill Swamp." 1779, Voted, "To lay a road to the dwelling house of Ebenezer Bardwell, Jr." It is likely that the whole line was originally known as the "Island road", and that it was actually opened from Christian Lane south in 1780,
To "lay out" a road, and to "accept" a road, as the terms were then used, probably fail to convey a true idea to us now.
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A vote to that effect did not show that a highway was put in complete order and well graded, but meant that a way was marked out and was made passable or possible. Sometimes it only meant that if a person traveled the designated route he should not be liable for damages for crossing his neighbor's land and that if he got mired the surveyor was bound to help him out without charge. In 1771 the town granted £16 for repair- ing highways and allowed 2s. 6d. per day for highway work, which would give only 128 days' work for all the roads.
The plan of east and west roads, as actually laid out, is very complicated and the record very confused. Excepting Christian Lane, and the Mt. Esther road from Spruce hill west- ward, scarcely one remains to-day as originally established, and the line of many of the early crossroads would be wholly unin- telligible to the present generation. A "close" road was often laid to accommodate a single individual. The roads leading from Chestnut Plain street to Belden's mills, were laid, and re- laid, and altered, and discontinued as new interests sprung up. And the same is true of the roads in the southwest and north- west parts of the town. Convenience for the time being was, perhaps unavoidably, the rule of location and discontinuance.
In 1772 the town voted that both the westerly and easterly (i. e. from Chestnut Plain as a base line) crossroads be laid out three rods wide. And where not otherwise specified this is believed to be the uniform width.
The road from Chestnut Plain near the old meeting-house, southeasterly through "Egypt" to Hatfield, does not appear to have been accepted as a highway by either Hatfield or Whately, though it was the convenient and the traveled way from the earliest settlement of the territory.
Christian Lane and the road over Mount Esther, as already stated, were reserved lots ten rods wide and were in a continu- ous line. The lane was a "bridle path" in 1756 and a rough log "causeway" in 1761, and Mill river was then crossed by a fordway. In 1773 the town voted to build a foot bridge over the Mill River swamp, near the house of Dea. Simeon Wait (the J. C. Loomis place.) Originally the lane extended only to the Straits. The road from Bartlett's corner to Canterbury, north of the cemetery, was laid in 1820.
From Chestnut Plain westerly the road, as first traveled, followed nearly the line of the reserved lot, varying only to 'escape "The gutter" and to get an easier ascent up the hill.
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That part "From the foot of Mt. Esther through land of Ensign Elisha Allis to Abraham Turner's barn on Poplar Hill" was laid out in 1773. From the foot of Mt. Esther to the Chestnut Plain street the location has been changed several times. In 1786 the town voted to establish the alterations in the highway from Whately meeting-house to Conway, beginning four rods south of the brook and running through the northeast part of Jonathan Allis' land on the old road, etc., and to the old road near the foot of the hill near Dea. Samuel Wells' house in Con- way. In 1801 record is made of a new location from Chestnut Plain road on Levi Morton's north line to the old road near the pound. West lane, as it now runs, was laid out in 1819.
Probably the Hatfield authorities had no thought of a new town when they marked off the Commons and reserved the lots for highways. But the intersection of those reserved highway lots determined where the central village of the new town should be. And this line from Bartlett's corner to Poplar Hill was the natural location for a road. Great swamp could not be so readily crossed at any other point, and the ascent of the hills was most feasible here. This was the earliest opened of any of the crossroads and was the most important, as it furnished a convenient way for the Canterbury and Straits people, on the one hand, and the West Whately families on the other, to get to meeting on the Sabbath and to town meeting.
. After ready access to the meeting-house had been obtained the next important care was to secure a convenient way to mill. Taylor's mills, which best accommodated many families, were over the line in Deerfield and consequently the road up Indian Hill is not noticed on our records. Belden's mills at West brook were accessible from the Straits by means of the road on the Hatfield side of the line running west, near where the pres- ent road runs and so across West brook bridge.
Roads for general convenience were established early. In 1776 a committee was appointed to view a road from Poplar Hill road, beginning seven rods north of West brook bridge, and running southwesterly to Dry Hill, and another committee to view a road running northwesterly from Poplar Hill road, beginning at the north end of Noah Field's land, to Conway line. This last was laid out the next year. In 1779 the town voted, "That the road which leads from the Straits to Nathaniel Coleman's be an open road, with this restriction, that Benjamin Scott, Jr., shall keep a good gate, at Deerfield road, another on
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Hopewell Hill one month, another the whole of the year at the south side of his land in Hopewell." Mention is made Jan. 8, 1778, of a road laid across land of Abial Bragg and Oliver Graves.
In 1779 a road was laid to Joseph Nash's and the next year from Joseph Nash's to the Conway line. In 1780 the road east of Ebenezer Scott's land was discontinued. In 1783 a road was laid from Asa Sanderson's westerly to the Williams- burg line. In 1785 a close road three rods wide was laid out from the river road, at a point eight rods north of Joshua Bel- den's house to the Connecticut river, and near the same time Mr. Belden opened a ferry across the river. A way was also laid out that year from Poplar Hill road by the Elijah Sanderson place to Moses Munson's mill. A road was laid out the same year from the road running west from John Smith's northerly to Poplar Hill road near Peter Train's house.
Of the roads laid in comparatively modern times one from Chestnut Plain to the Island, between lands of Capt. Henry Stiles and Lieut. John White, was established in 1810. The highway from Dea. James Smith's mills down the valley by Capt. Seth Bardwell's, was laid out in 1824. The road from the foot of Spruce Hill, southwesterly to the Hiram Smith place, was laid out in 1834. The road to South Deerfield, from Gutter bridge through Great swamp, was established in 1835, and the next year the way leading from the lane north was relocated, and near the swamp moved to the west.
The Deerfield road was in use probably as early as the set- tlement of Deerfield, about 1671, and was in constant use in 1764 as the only way to communicate with the people of Deer- field. This road leaves the Main street in Hatfield between the houses-when I was a boy-of Solomon Dickinson and his brother's widow, Nancy Dickinson, then by the Elisha Waite place, up Clay Hill, so called, on to the second level then fol- lowed a northerly course through the Straits to South Deerfield, keeping on the Plain to the Straits and so over the North plain.
For many years the direct road much of the way was sandy and difficult to travel with loaded teams. It doubtless struck the Indian trail after getting some fifty or sixty rods from the top of Clay Hill and very likely that trail was utilized for a road. It ran nearly one and one-half miles on the limits of the Gov. Bradstreet grant, as all of the Straits and quite a strip north of Bartlett's corner is on this grant, then into the second Division
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of Commons through which it passes to South Deerfield. This was the main road up the valley for over a hundred years, or until about 1840, when the roads were built through Great swamp and the hills were graded, and now the old Deerfield road is seldom used.
The river road passes through a lovely region as well as a very fertile and well-cultivated section of our town. The writer of this had a plan of the survey of the Chestnut Plain street in his possession, but gave it to Irving Allis, but preserved this description of it. It was the survey of the road from the top of Clay Hill in Hatfield through Whately to Conway, over Indian Hill, to where it intersects the Conway and South Deerfield road under the authority of the town of Hatfield before the town of Whately was incorporated. This survey was made in 1770.
We here present the following extract from the Hatfield town records : "At a legal meeting of the proprietors of the Com- mons in Hatfield lying in the six mile grant, 21 Nov. 1743. Voted, by the proprietors that the highway between the second and fourth division, run as follows : To begin where the high- way ends that is laid out on the west side of Mill river swamp, and from thence to run to the upper or north side of the forty- fifth lot in said fourth division, as staked out by the proprietors' committee in the present year. And from thence to run north- west fifty-eight rods to the north side of lot No. 50, staked out as aforesaid, and from thence north to Deerfield line. At this point it veers to the northwest, up to Pete Hill and so on up Indian Hill and on to Conway."
This road I presume to be the real base line of the roads afterwards laid. This, as all the roads, was laid ten rods wide, but since some have been reduced to three rods.
The Chestnut Plain street still retains its original width. Please note that Chestnut Plain street began "Where the high- way ends." Here allow me to say that Silas G. Hubbard, who fully understood the Hatfield roads, told the writer that each side of the Mill swamp division was a road one-half mile apart. From this fact I certainly think, as did Mr. Hubbard, that the Claverack road-as now called-was a continuation of the road on the east side of Mill swamp. How early these roads were laid I do not know, certainly before 1743. So we have good rea- son to suppose that the Claverack road existed from about 1716 to 1743.
It was doubtless true that the north and south roads were
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intended to be about one-half mile apart, particularly from Chestnut Plain street east. Then the places where roads were to be worked were indicated so plainly that when Simeon Mor- ton settled on the Dry Hill foad he well knew where the road was to be. The same is also true of Lieut. Noah Bardwell and Peter Train. Edward Brown built on the proposed Poplar Hill road, that was laid out in 1773, from Conway line to the south line of Whately. The Dry Hill road was laid in 1774.
Our theory about these and other roads is that the people well understood where the roads were eventually to be worked, as in 1777 the town chose a committee to view a road from Egypt road north to the Deerfield line, and then in 1780 the Claverack road was laid from Eleazer Frary's to Hatfield line. Eleazer Frary lived on the Alonzo Crafts place in the lane, so it is very evident that the road was there, by the action of Hat- field prior to this, as Niles Coleman lived there then.
As will be seen by reference to the will of Reuben Belden, dated 27 Nov., 1775, he gave the town of Whately "The farm or land in said Whately, with the dwelling house standing there- on, lying on the Island, so called, in which Niles Coleman now lives." The evidence is simply culminative and to the effect that the people of that day well knew where the roads had been es- tablished by Hatfield. How long Niles Coleman had lived there we do not know or who had built the house that was a log house we cannot tell, but it was pulled down and the present house built very soon.
Mr. Temple doesn't give any dates of the laying out of the highway from Deerfield line past the Abraham Parker place to connect with the highway running through the Gov. Bradstreet farm, but the records of the proprietors of Bradstreet's grant say : "At a legal meeting of the proprietors, held 16 May, 1718, it was voted, that we will have a highway to run through the upper mile in the most convenient place," and a great gate was to be built at the north end that leads out to Canterbury. This was built by Ebenezer Bardwell and another at the end of the upper mile, built by Josiah Scott, and this was the direct road to Sunderland, and as we find the date of 1718 we can but conclude that the road past the Abraham Parker place was in existence as early as 1718.
The road from the river road to the Deerfield road Mr. Tem- ple says was laid in 1756 and struck the Straits below the John Waite place running south of the cemetery. This has since
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been straightened. Then he says: "In 1755 a road was laid from the Straits eastwardly by Ebenezer Morton's to the road dividing Old farms and West farms, thence to Dennison's grant." Who was Ebenezer Morton ? Where did he live ? And where is the road ? Most certainly not in Whately.
Considerably earlier than this a path had been marked out and traveled from the Straits near "Mother George" north- westerly through "Egypt" to Chestnut Plain street, so Mr. Temple says. Now the Mother George road did not lead to or from the Straits, as the Mother George road had its mouth or junction exactly where the Ferguson house stands, now owned by H. A. Brown, then running east to a ford of Mill river thence running southerly, west of the barns of John M. Crafts and Pat- rick Conolly, thence southeasterly to the south line of R. M. Swift's land, bought of Orrin Dickinson, and so on in the same southeast course to the Egypt road, crossing it diagonally and keeping the same course across the Capt. Smith lot, formerly owned by the writer, and met the Deerfield road about fifteen rods north of the Joseph Scott place, owned later by Elijah Bel- den, on the west side of Deerfield road in Hatfield.
The writer has been over this Mother George road for seventy years. The wet spots were corduroyed, and the old, much-de- cayed poles are still in existence. This was the route over which our earlier settlers went to Hatfield. And one going then from Northampton would have to go through Hatfield then over Mother George to Whately and Conway, either by the Indian Hill route or else by the Mt. Esther route. We have no other date for the Christian Lane road than that of its being laid out or left for a road 29 April, 1716. This lot was 8 rods, II feet and 4 inches wide at Chestnut Plain street and some wider at the Straits. Mr. Temple says : "Christian Lane and the road over Mt. Esther, as already stated, were in a continuous line."
Here I must differ from Mr. Temple, as the lot left for a road in the fourth division was between lots No. 26 and 27, and was between Horace Manning's house and the house of Dono- van brothers. From the north side of lot 26, in the fourth division of Commons, to the south line of the Christian Lane road is 224 rods, so the two roads could not have been in con- tinuous line. But there was never a road built on the lot left for a road between 26 and 27. But the road turned from Chest- nut Plain street just north of the Oliver Morton blacksmith shop just south of the W. I. Fox house and then ran diagonally
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from that point to the "Pound" and then up the hill and on over Easter to West Whately, striking the Poplar Hill road near the house of Abraham Turner, just north of the Baptist meeting-house. Had Hatfield located the West Whately road between lots 36 and 37 instead of 26 and 27, it would have been somne twenty-five rods too far south to have been coincident, as Mr: Temple claimed.
The road over Easter was laid by Whately in 1773. The Lover's Lane was laid out, as it now runs, in 1819 at the in- stance of Elijah Allis, who was then about to build the hotel. Dr. Bardwell had then built his house and where the hotel stands was the location for horse sheds. These were torn down or removed, probably torn down, as there were no sheds any- where about the church as early as 1825, as I well recollect. When the West Whately road over Easter reached the lowlands north of Irving Allis' house it branched off from the Conway road, running under Mt. Easter, or Esther, up by the house of Dea. Samuel Wells, more recently owned by Seth B. Crafts.
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